Gold managed to go above $1,400 an ounce for the first time – at one point reaching $1,424.02 – before slightly retreating by the end of the session. Petropavlovsk was just one of the major beneficiaries, as the Russian miner soared 79p to 1,027p.
The metal's rise has been prompted in the last week by the US Federal Reserve's decision to implement extra stimulus measures, which has resulted in the dollar weakening. Yet despite its rapid elevation, many believe the precious metal has still not peaked.
"Based on the current trends, it does look like there are further gains to come," said IG Index's David Jones. He added that the price of gold "does seem to have still an awful lot of momentum behind it, and many people are eyeing up $1,500 an ounce as the next logical target".
Another company moving up on the back of the metal's rise was African Barrick Gold, which put on 16.5p to 555p, and Randgold Resources, up 275p to 6,265p, which released its latest third-quarter figures yesterday.
Gold was not the only commodity on the up, with copper and tin just some of those that saw their value increase during the day. The result was a strong session for the miners, and they in turn inspired the FTSE 100 to finish on 5,875.19 points, a rise of 25.23.
Yet despite the miners' gains, it was Schroders which reigned supreme over the blue-chip index. The investment manager released estimate-beating results for the third-quarter, and JP Morgan Cazenove welcomed the "positive surprise" of net flows that were twice what the broker had expected. The news meant that Schroders achieved a record of its own, closing up 87p on 1,667p, the highest price its shares have reached.
BP saw the benefit of the decision by the presidential commission tasked with looking into the Gulf oil spill to release its preliminary findings late on Monday. The investigators said that they agreed with much of BP's analysis, most notably that the oil company had not cut back on safety in order to save money.
It was not all good news, however, as the panel did attack the firm's attempts to plug the well before the explosion, but it was enough to ensure that BP was among the day's major movers, climbing 10.45p to 454.45p.
Also enjoying an impressive day was Barclays, which released its third-quarter results and insisted that it would not have to ask for capital from investors to meet Basel III requirements. That took the heat off its investment banking unit, Barclays Capital, which saw a year-on-year drop in top level income of nearly 25 per cent. Phil Dobbin, an analyst at Shore Capital, predicted that the market would "feel relieved with today's announcement", and it duly responded, with the bank climbing 11.35p to 297p.
InterContinental Hotel's latest update was rather less well received, as it failed to match earnings forecasts for the third quarter. The world's largest hotel group – whose brands include Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza – blamed an increase in its staffing costs, and the news precipitated a fall of 62p to 1,140p. Still, the company remained in a better shape than in the summer; at one point in August its share price managed to drop to 982p.
Marks & Spencer was another faller, as Marc Bolland set out his strategy for the British institution. The company's new head promised more investment in the UK and overseas, as well as its online operation, but its price dropped 7.2p to 406p.
On the FTSE 250, TalkTalk Telecom put on 6.3p to 139.6p following the emergence of rumours regarding a potential £2-a-share bid for the company. It is not the first time that takeover speculation has engulfed the broadband internet provider, which was spun off from Carphone Warehouse earlier in the year and has been seen as an attractive proposition ever since.
The announcement by Yell Group that Michael Pocock, formerly of Cisco, will be its new chief executive could not distract investors from an increasing fall in its sales over the second quarter. Down 12.1 per cent in the last three months, this resulted in a revenue drop of 11.2 per cent for the first half of the year. The company – which publishes the Yellow Pages directory – said that it would cut costs to meet profit expectations for the year, but despite this, it saw its share price disintegrate, down 3.19p to 12.37p.
Among the Aim-listed companies, Bowleven really set the pace as the oil explorer announced that it had made what it described as "potentially transformational" discoveries in its well off the coast of Cameroon.
With the company also revealing that it had managed to make a $19.5m (£12.2m) profit for the year after posting a loss for the previous 12 months, investors piled in, resulting in an increase in share price of more than a third as it reached 268.75p, up 69.25p.
Comments